Description:
The Introductory course sits at the nexus of multiple concerns and demands. For example, as a general education course, it must teach skills (in some places, to a diverse audience), but as an introduction to a dimension of the field of religious studies, biblical studies, or whatever area it is "introducing," it must either entice new majors, functioning to offer "tidbits" of larger subjects, or set the foundations for work in a field. This workshop will examine the introductory course in its multiplicity through the common element of all courses: the syllabus. The syllabus will allow us to ask a variety of questions about contextual demands of institution, guild, departmental, and personal goals. Participants will be required to bring a syllabus from an introductory course they are currently teaching/TA-ing or from an introductory course they would like to teach.

Survey for Contingent Faculty

If you hold a contingent faculty position, we encourage you to participate in this survey by New Faculty Majority: The National Coalition for Adjunct and Contingent Equity. The survey should take no more than 15-20 minutes. NFM is a new, independent national organization for adjunct and contingent faculty in all disciplines and at any public or private university, college, or community college in the US. NFM is dedicated to achieving professional equity and advancing academic freedom for all adjunct and contingent faculty in American colleges and universities through advocacy, education and litigation. More information about NFM is available here.

Annual Call for Nominations to SBL Leadership Positions

SBL Members are encouraged and invited to submit nominations to fill open positions on SBL committees and boards. Please follow this link for instructions.

Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI)Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel is a new peer-reviewed, quarterly journal focussing primarily on the biblical texts in their ancient historical contexts, but also on the history of Israel in its own right. Each issue will have a topical focus. The primary language will be English, but articles may also be published in German and French. A specific goal of the new journal will be to foster the discussion between the different academic cultures in the international context pertaining to the study.

Sheffield Phoenix Press announces the debut of a journal for the new and burgeoning field of the reception of the Bible. What the biblical text has meant to its readers down through the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any "original" meaning, and this is the niche that Biblical Reception will fill.

The planned new journal will be a substantial annual volume covering all kinds of use of the Bible—in art, literature, music, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation. The first volume is planned for October, 2012.

Papers for the first volume are being solicited. The preferred length is 5000 to 8000 words; the style sheet may be found at www.sheffieldphoenix.com/authors.asp. Submissions should contain, beneath the title, an abstract of c. 250 words, and be sent electronically to j.c.exum@sheffield.ac.uk. Papers will be peer reviewed.

The journal will be published by Sheffield Phoenix Press.

Membership and Subscriptions

Membership
Optional Profile Winners: Every month, we randomly select two members from the pool of those who have filled out the Optional Profile for a free one-year membership. The September 2011 winners are:

Seonghun Shim
Dulcinea Boesenberg

As our privacy policy indicates, we will never divulge information from your profile to a third party. Thank you to all of you who have supplied this optional data. If you have not yet filled in the information (or you would like to update it), you may do so by logging into our website with your SBL Member number and going to the "my profile" tab, which will appear on the left hand side of the screen in the box where you logged in. While you are filling out the Optional Profile, please make sure all of your profile information is up to date!

SubscriptionsThe Review of Biblical Literature (RBL), founded by the Society of Biblical Literature, presents reviews of books in biblical studies and related fields. Appearing in digital form and in print, RBL is comprehensive, international, and timely.

Comprehensive: RBL includes reviews of various topical studies, multi-author volumes, reference works, commentaries, dictionaries, bible translations, software, and other resources for the classroom and research. Multiple and contrasting reviews are often presented. The material reviewed and our reviewers come from varied academic, social, and religious perspectives.

International: RBL provides a forum for international scholarly exchange and cutting edge innovations with reviews of German, French, Italian, and English books as well as reviews in those languages. Our editorial board includes members from across the globe.

Timely: RBL produces reviews of the most recent titles in biblical studies.

Authoritative: RBL reviews are written by the most qualified scholars available, whether a member of the SBL or the broader scholarly guild, and are vetted to ensure their quality by a highly regarded editorial board.

You can print the form, fill it out and mail it with your payment or payment information to 825 Houston Mill Road, Suite 213 Atlanta , GA 30329. Or, you can fax it to 404-727-2419. If you prefer you can renew your subscription online by logging into the website at http://www.sbl-site.org/membership/joinnow.aspx and following the directions.

Society Fund

Together, with members and staff, we try to take every opportunity and harness every means to give you the most useful resources, tools, networks, and opportunities to further your research and enhance your professional development. Please support the Society Fund regularly, allowing us to plan with greater certainty. The work of the SBL would not be possible without the generous support of our members.
Please donate today

In Search of Well-Being: Perspectives on Health and ReligiousTraditionsUniversity of South Africa, Pretoria, RSA
Presentations are invited on the following areas:• New Testament and early Christian perspectives on healing and well-being
• Religious traditions and human well-being: towards salvation or damnation
• Well-being and health in an age of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
• Collective well-being and quality of life: globalisation and ecology
• Cross disciplinary and cross-cultural explorations of well-being
• Individuals, societies and environment: faith and the pursuit of well-being
• How do we define well-being in the 21st century?
• Is well-being the new religion of the 21st century?

Emerging Normativities:
Examining the Formation of Proto-Orthodox Christianities and Rabbinic Judaisms 200-800 CE
St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
The confirmed plenary speakers are Daniel Boyarin (UC Berkeley) and Anders Runesson (McMaster University). Click here for more information and online registration.

9/30- 10/1

"Reading Genesis 1-2: An Evangelical Conversation" A "multiple views" symposium on how to read the creation narratives of Genesis 1 and 2, taking place at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Chattanooga, TN.

Workshop Call for Papers Deadline
The Program in Judaic Studies in collaboration with the Brown University Library's Center for Digital Scholarship is pleased to announce plans for a two-day workshop devoted to investigating the ways in which the digital humanities has or can change the study of religion in antiquity. The workshop will take place on February 13-14, 2012, at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

We invite proposals for papers and presentations that explore the intersection of ancient religion and the digital humanities. We are particularly interested in presentations of projects that have the potential to open up new questions and avenues of research. Can digital tools not only allow us to do our work faster and more thoroughly but also enable entirely new kinds of research? How might different digital data (e.g., textual, geographic, and material culture) be used together most productively? The workshop will concentrate primarily on research rather than directly on pedagogy or scholarly communication. One session will be devoted to "nuts and bolts" issues of funding and starting a digital project.

The focus of the workshop will be on the religions of West Asia and the Mediterranean basin through the early Islamic period. Proposals relating to other regions, however, will also be considered.

Please submit proposals of up to 300 words by October 31, 2011, to Michael Satlow

10/31

Call for PapersProphecy and Politics in Ancient Israel and in Ancient Cultures
The Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa is holding an international conference May 28- 31 2012.
The intention of the conference is to examine the biblical prophets and prophecy in ancient cultures in general—within the geographical compass of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant—from the beginnings of writing until the first century CE. The focus will be on the attitudes of ancient writers and readers to political-historical events.

A one day excursion is planned: In the footsteps of Elijah, Elisha and the necromancer of En-Dor. We would like to interest you in this conference, and we invite you to propose a lecture. Please let us know of your interest by 31 October 2011, by E-mail or regular mail.

ASOR Annual MeetingThe American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) will hold their Annual Meeting at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, CA More information

11/17- 11/19

Adventist Society for Religious Studies
The 2011 meeting will convene in San Francisco, California. The theme for the meeting is: "Gates and Walls: Inclusivity and Exclusivity and the People of God." more information

11/18- 11/22

SBL Annual Meeting,
The SBL Annual Meeting will be held in San Francisco, California. More information

11/25

Call for Papers Deadline: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World X: Tradition, Transmission, and Adaptation
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
When oral theory first entered classical studies, it concerned itself mostly with the transmission of narratives in verse, and one of its first concerns was the accuracy of this process. It is time to think about transmission in a wider context. Information traveled by a variety of mechanisms in antiquity. Texts, ideas, and practices were all transmitted through time and space. Sometimes both form and content were retained, but were placed in a new context; often both were profoundly transformed.

This iteration of the biennial conference on Orality and Literacy will consider the differences between oral and written transmissions, as well as their interactions. When knowledge crosses cultural and linguistic boundaries, does it matter whether it is transmitted orally or in writing? Are written texts always less fluid than oral performances? How should we think about the different kinds of writing as methods of transmitting information, from the wax tablet to the monumental inscription?

We are seeking contributions from classicists as well as scholars in ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies. Papers should be 25-30 minutes in length. There will be ample time for discussion.
The conference will include an excursion to Detroit and a session introducing Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) oral tradition, and an opportunity to visit the University of Michigan's renowned papyrus collection.

Those interested in presenting a paper should send a one-page abstract to Orality2012@umich.edu by November 25, 2011.
For further information, please email Ruth Scodel

A program of ongoing training at the Pontifical Biblical InstituteThe Pontifical Biblical Institute begins a program of ongoing training for researchers in, and teachers of, Sacred Scripture in Faculties of Theology and other institutions of learning. More information

February 2012

2/13- 2/14

Digital Humanities Workshop
The Program in Judaic Studies in collaboration with the Brown University Library's Center for Digital Scholarship is pleased to announce plans for a two-day workshop devoted to investigating the ways in which the digital humanities has or can change the study of religion in antiquity. The workshop will take place on February 13-14, 2012, at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

We invite proposals for papers and presentations that explore the intersection of ancient religion and the digital humanities. We are particularly interested in presentations of projects that have the potential to open up new questions and avenues of research. Can digital tools not only allow us to do our work faster and more thoroughly but also enable entirely new kinds of research? How might different digital data (e.g., textual, geographic, and material culture) be used together most productively? The workshop will concentrate primarily on research rather than directly on pedagogy or scholarly communication. One session will be devoted to "nuts and bolts" issues of funding and starting a digital project.

The focus of the workshop will be on the religions of West Asia and the Mediterranean basin through the early Islamic period. Proposals relating to other regions, however, will also be considered.